The present invention relates generally to a system and method for textile production. In particular, the invention relates to a system and method for producing a textile based on an image received from a customer.
Mass production of textiles occurs in many manufacturing centres around the world. In most cases, the manufacturer chooses to produce, or is contracted to produce, a textile having a particular visual appearance or xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d and proceeds to manufacture large quantities of the textile having that design. For example, for a particular beach towel design, the manufacturer may produce one thousand beach towels having that design. It is generally not economically viable for the manufacturer to produce low quantities of a textile of a particular design as there are set-up costs associated with setting up the textile weaving machinery for each different design.
If a customer desires to have a particular design or image applied to a beach towel, for example, he must bear the time costs of consulting the manufacturer or manufacturer""s agent in relation to that design and the costs of having the towel weaving machinery set up specifically for that towel design, with the result that that particular towel is inordinately expensive relative to most towels available on the market. Additionally, it is generally not possible to manufacture only one towel at a time and if the weaving machinery is set up to produce one particular design, there is usually a set number of towels which must be produced in weaving a design cycle by the machinery. Therefore, if the consumer only wants one towel of the particular design, the remaining towels are wasted.
The present invention provides a method of producing a textile product, including the steps of:
receiving order information from a customer over a network, the order information including an image to be reproduced on the textile product;
processing the order information to create an order record readable by an automated weaving machine; and
causing the weaving machine to weave the textile product according to the order record so as to have a representation of the image on a face of the textile product.
By this method, it is possible to provide for automatic production of the textile product such that a number of customer orders may be processed and woven within a batch of textile products. Each customer can order a customized textile product but because the individual customer designs are processed within a single batch, it is not necessary for the customer to pay for the entire batch set-up cost. As the method is automatic and does not require a human operator to be involved during the set-up phase of production of the textile product, the production cost is advantageously made more economically viable. Advantageously, by processing a number of different customer orders within a single batch, the cost of each textile product is commensurately reduced and becomes affordable to the consumer.
Advantageously, the method can be used to process a number of different customer orders using a number of weaving machines.
Preferably, a plurality of automated weaving machines is provided, each being set up to provide textile products of a different binary colour selection and/or size selection whereby a plurality of batches of textile products, each batch having a particular binary color selection and size selection associated therewith, can be woven by respective weaving machines. Accordingly, a customer is able to select a particular binary color selection and/or size from the range offered by the set up of the different weaving machines. The plurality of weaving machines may be distributed among a number of different manufacturing locations, either within a single country or around the world.
To put this in to effect, preferably the order information further includes the following:
(a) payment information to enable the customer to be charged a payment for the production of the textile or account information relating to a pre-existing account that that customer may have for the purposes of ordering the production of textiles;
(b) information as to any text which is to be placed adjacent the image on the textile, including size, style and font of the text;
(c) information as to which of a predetermined set of binary colors is to be used for representing the image on the textile product (eg. black/white, blue/red, green/yellow);
(d) information as to the preferred size of the textile product, selected from a predetermined set of size options;
(e) information as to the preferred textile material to be used for the textile product, selected from a predetermined list of materials;
(f) address and contact information of the customer.
Preferably, the automated weaving machine includes a jacquard machine. Reference hereinafter to ajacquard weaving machine is a reference to ajacquard machine in a controlling relationship with the mechanical weaving functions of the weaving machine (also called a xe2x80x9cloomxe2x80x9d).
Preferably, the step of receiving is performed by a web server in communication with the network Preferably, after the step of receiving, the method further includes a step of confirming the validity of the payment information and registering a charge against the customer in accordance with that payment information if it is confirmed to be valid. Preferably, the step of confirming also includes parsing the order information to check that it constitutes valid order information.
Preferably, the step of processing further includes the step of downloading the order information to a design station for conditioning the image. Preferably, the conditioning includes filtering to enhance the contrast of the colors within the image and cropping of the borders of the image.
Preferably, the conditioning includes converting the image to a 41 point grey scale. Preferably, the step of processing includes the step of creating a weave in accordance with the converted 41 point grey scale image, such that:
weave number zero corresponds to all pile loops on the face of the textile being of the first binary colour;
weave number 40 corresponds to all pile loops on the face of the textile being of the second binary color;
weave number 5 (for example) corresponds to 35 of the 40 loops being of the first binary colour and 5 of the loops being of the second binary colour.
Preferably, in the example regarding weave number 5 above, the five loops of the second binary colour are evenly but irregularly distributed among a block of 40 loops. Preferably, the step of processing further includes a step of converting the 41 point grey scaled image to a file format for reading by the weaving machine. For example, a so-called xe2x80x9cCard Imagexe2x80x9d (CI) file format may be appropriate for reading by some jacquard weaving machines.
Preferably, the method further includes the step of forwarding the order information to a production management system for tracking the production of the textile product ordered by each customer. Preferably, the web server interfaces with the production management system for reporting to the customer which stage of production the textile product is in at the time of a customer request for such a report via the web server.
Preferably, the method further includes, prior to the step of causing the weaving machine to weave, the steps of scheduling a plurality of order records for weaving by the weaving machine in one batch and scheduling a further plurality of order records for weaving by the weaving machine in a second batch of textile products. Preferably, each of the order records in a batch of textile products has the same binary color selection and size selection as the other order records in that batch.
Preferably, the jacquard weaving machine includes a computer processor and memory and is adapted to store a plurality of order records for producing a batch of textile products. Preferably, following the step of causing the weaving machine to weave, the method further includes the step of feeding the batch of textile products to an automatic cutting and sewing machine to separate each of the textile products from each other. Preferably, the method farther includes the steps of automatically inspecting, packing and labelling the textiles and shipping each textile product to the consumer by whom that product was ordered.
The present invention also provides a system for producing a textile product, including:
means for receiving order information from a customer over a network, the order information including an image to be reproduced on the textile product;
means for processing the order information to create an order record readable by an automated weaving machine; and
means for causing the weaving machine to weave the textile product according to the order record so as to have a representation of the image on a face of the textile product.
Preferably, the textile product is a towel. Alternatively, the textile product is a rug or other loop pile textile. Alternatively, the textile product is a non-loop pile textile, for example such as upholstery fabric, a tea towel or a flat xe2x80x98throw rugxe2x80x99. Preferably, the image includes one or more graphics and/or text images.
The present invention also provides a method of producing a textile product, including the steps of:
receiving order information from a customer over a network, the order information including an image to be reproduced on the textile product;
processing the order information to create an order record readable by an automated weaving system;
transmitting the order record to the weaving system to enable the weaving system to weave the textile product according to the order record so as to have a representation of the image on a face of the textile product.
Preferably, the weaving system includes a server for receiving the order record and at least one automated weaving machine responsive to the server for weaving the textile product.
The weaving system may be located locally or remotely relative to where the order information is processed. Multiple textile products of the same or a different kind can be produced by the system and method, using one or more automated weaving machines as appropriate.
Advantageously, preferred embodiments of the invention provide the following features:
1. The customer can order a single textile, or another small number such as four, according to a design chosen by that customer without incurring the inordinate expense and wastage of having the weaving machines set up especially for that particular design, thereby allowing the customer to order a personalized towel or a rug at a normal price for a towel or a rug.
2. The customer can place his or her order over the Internet by using a web based application hosted by the web server. Advantageously, the web based application allows the customer to upload the image and modify it to be of the appropriate size or scale so that he or she can see an example of how the textile product would look once it had been woven by the system.
3. The automatic processing of the order information and operation of the weaving machine allows for each batch of towels, for example, to include a number of different product designs within the same batch of towels and enables fast and efficient processing of the orders.
The invention is described in greater detail hereinafter, by way of example only, with reference to embodiments thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings which are briefly described below.